Blowing whistle on bad refereeing

The SA Football Association have every right to be furious at Senegalese referee Maguette Ndiaye, after his shocking penalty decision handed Ghana the vital winning goal against Bafana Bafana in their Group G Fifa World Cup qualifier at the Cape Coast Stadium on Sunday.

Andre Ayew’s spot kick ultimately sent the Black Stars to the final qualifying round for Qatar 2022 and eliminated Bafana – unless Safa somehow succeed with their appeal to the Confederation of African Football and Fifa to investigate the performance of Ndiaye and his assistants.

Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe referenced “manipulation” in his statement on Monday, and the decision by Fifa to order a replay of Bafana’s 2016 Fifa World Cup qualifier against Senegal, after Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey was banned for life for “match manipulation” in the original encounter.

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Lamptey’s actions were linked to suspicious betting activities in the Bafana-Senegal match.

But therein lies the rub for Safa. They are compiling a list of incidents in which they believe they were “wronged” by Ndiaye – and not just the penalty decision – but unless Fifa have hard evidence that something untoward has gone on, they are likely to throw out Safa’s claims very quickly.

There is a clear difference between match manipulation and simple refereeing incompetence, which it is quite possible was the case here.